Question

What things are soaked before cooking in your house? Why?

Answer 1

Hint: The food prepared by cooking is easily digestible and becomes consumable. Some cooking processes like washing, cutting and soaking make the cooking items cook up faster and are hygienic. These practices ensure that the cooking has been done thoroughly and the nutrients are retained.

Complete answer:
The cooking of food is necessary as it makes the food easy to consume and digested by the digestive system. The process requires several steps so that the raw materials become cooked and are in consumable state. The processes prior to the actual cooking process are washing, cutting or breaking into smaller fragments or soaking. The soaking process involves the immersion of food stuff in water, especially the food stuff that is hard and brittle.
The important food stuffs that are soaked are leguminous seeds such as rajma, kidney bean, dry peas or chickpeas, pulses, rice and other cereals. The rice and other cereals are generally soaked for a few hours prior to cooking but the dry seeds and leguminous seeds are soaked overnight. During the process of soaking, the food stuffs are rinsed and finally allowed to remain in a water bath either for a few hours or overnight.
The process of soaking allows the water to diffuse into the dry seeds and moisture content of the seeds is increased. This makes the seeds soft as a result they take up less time during the cooking process and less burning of fuel takes place. The soaking process ensures proper and complete cooking of the hard stuff and the consumption of fuel can also be reduced.
The soaking of some pulses and leguminous seeds such as channa and moong are also done to make sprouts. Sprouts are nutritious and have a very low-calorie count. They are specially prescribed by doctors to check weight and BMR related issues.

Note: Soaking process ensures the proper cooking of the tough and hard food stuff such as pulses, seeds and rice. These foodstuffs take up less time during the cooking process and ensures that all the nourishing elements are retained.